This year's event will be Knott's Berry Farm's 40th Halloween Haunt; in those four decades, it's gone from a three-day occasion to a month-long revelry in the frightening and macabre. ROD VEAL, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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This clown will be waiting to spook visitors at this year's 40th Halloween Haunt at Knott's Berry Farm. ROD VEAL, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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These scary clowns will be waiting to freak out visitors to Uncle Bobo's Big Top of the Bizarre in 3D maze at this year's 40th Halloween Haunt. ROD VEAL, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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You'll meet this nutty character inside Uncle Bobo's Big Top of the Bizarre in 3D maze at Knott's Berry Farm's 40th Halloween Haunt. ROD VEAL, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

There were only a handful of monsters roaming Ghost Town in the early years, and they included characters from the popular "Planet of the Apes" movie. COURTESY OF KNOTT'S BERRY FARM

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Popular television monster movie host Seymour hosted the first stage show at Knott's Halloween Haunt in 1973 in the Ghoul Time Theatre. COURTESY OF KNOTT'S BERRY FARM

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Radio and television personality Wolfman Jack poses with Marion and Virginia Knott. Wolfman Jack took over for Seymour in the Ghoul Time Theatre in 1975. COURTESY OF KNOTT'S BERRY FARM

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Ghost Town monsters attack can-can girls during the first year of Haunt. COURTESY OF KNOTT'S BERRY FARM

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The show "Sacrifice in Fire" started in 1977 on Fiesta Island. The show included a wizard and swamp monsters named "Hydroloids." COURTESY OF KNOTT'S BERRY FARM

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John Waite, one of Knott's early ride crew members, decorates the Mine Ride in 1977. COURTESY OF KNOTT'S BERRY FARM

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One of the first Halloween Haunt mazes was the Trail of Terror which was built in Boot Hill Cemetery behind Jeffries Barn. COURTESY OF KNOTT'S BERRY FARM

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While wandering the streets of Ghost Town in the early years, guests would be greeted by traditional Halloween characters including the Mummy, Dracula and Wolf Man. COURTESY OF KNOTT'S BERRY FARM

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Dracula and Vampira were frequent feature players during the early Haunt days, as shown in this publicity photo from 1983. COURTESY OF KNOTT'S BERRY FARM

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The first "Witch Hanging" at Knott's Scary Farm did not occur until 1980, but the first hanging of record was "The Dead Man's Hanging," which took place in 1976. COURTESY OF KNOTT'S BERRY FARM

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Local monster horror film television hostess Elvira was recruited to take over the show in the Ghoul Time Theatre in 1982. She would headline at the venue on and off until 2001. Here she is shown with one of her co-hosts, the Cryptkeeper. COURTESY OF KNOTT'S BERRY FARM

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Modern monsters are by Knott's Berry Farm's entertainment and wardrobe department. COURTESY OF KNOTT'S BERRY FARM

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Making its return this year, the maze "Delirium" brings nightmares to life, whether they're of an insect infestation or a haunted hallway. COURTESY OF KNOTT'S BERRY FARM

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Back for its third season, Fallout Shelter brings guests face to face with toxic mutants and nuclear freaks. COURTESY OF KNOTT'S BERRY FARM

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Pig characters have been a staple in Ghost Town streets for years. COURTESY OF KNOTT'S BERRY FARM

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Still one of Knott's Scary Farm's most popular mazes, the Terror of London, will be back for a fourth year. Beware, Jack the Ripper is still on the loose. COURTESY OF KNOTT'S BERRY FARM

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Also back for a fourth year, Virus Z will once again welcome guests to the town of Pleasanton where dozens of hunger-crazed zombies wait. COURTESY OF KNOTT'S BERRY FARM

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Knott's Berry Farm's Halloween Haunt Museum is dedicated to the 40-year history of the special event. MARK EADES, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, was the hostess of a live show for many years at Knott's Berry Farm's Halloween Haunt. This is a replica of her costume and set. MARK EADES, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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One of the masks and costumes worn in years past at Knott's Berry Farm's Halloween Haunt is on display in the theme park's museum. MARK EADES, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

BUENA PARK – What began with fewer than 10 costumed employees and some skeletons scattered here and there is now the longest-running – and one of the biggest – Halloween events in Southern California.

This year's Halloween Haunt that begins Friday will be Knott's Berry Farm's 40th. In those four decades, it's gone from a three-day occasion to a month-long revelry in the frightening and macabre.

Haunt's popularity has inspired Halloween-themed shows at other venues, such as Universal Studios Hollywood, Disneyland and Legoland.

"We like to call Haunt 'the granddaddy of them all,' " said Gary Salisbury, a Yorba Linda resident who worked 17 Haunts for Knott's entertainment division, beginning with the inaugural Haunt in 1973. "It spawned a whole industry."

That's part of the challenge for Knott's current creative minds: How to reach deeper into the tens of thousands of repeat Haunt visitors and still jolt them with adrenaline.

"Every year, we try to make things fresh," said Lara Hanneman, one of Knott's entertainment directors. "We watch our competitors. They've been copying us for a very long time, so we need to make sure we're always one step ahead of them."

Some years, that means new shows; others, it's new twists in the monster mazes. Because of that, Haunt planners don't even wait for the park's fake cobwebs to be replaced with Christmas holly before they start devising the following year's event.

It wasn't like that in 1973, the year the Watergate burglars stood trial, President Richard Nixon stopped U.S. offensive action in Vietnam, and CBS-TV aired the final episode of "Bonanza."

Knott's marketing crew came up with the idea that September for a three-day event to be held the weekend before Halloween. At the time, there were no hints it would become an annual event with a cult following; the employees had the more-modest goal of shoring up attendance during a traditionally slow time.

But several elements came together, even back then, that are familiar today, including employees dressed as ghouls roaming the park, looking for victims.

They almost didtoogood a job spooking their quarry.

"We learned they should go in groups of two or three, because of the abuse from the guests," Salisbury said. "They would attack us."

That wasn't enough for a showman like Hurlbut, according to the history compendium "Knott's Preserved." The book describes how the normally quiet Hurlbut donned a gorilla suit, went up to the Mine Ride's famous Cavern Room, and roared at trains passing by.

"Gosh, it scared them," the book quotes Hurlbut as recalling. "Some women laid down right on the floor of the train car!"

Employees that first year were encouraged to create little holiday touches in whatever part of the park they worked in, like stringing up cobwebs, or crafting skulls out of foam heads.

The now-defunct Haunted Shack was converted into the "Monster Maze," the first labyrinth in what is now a Haunt staple.

"So many people were coming in that we had to find other things. ... The lines on the rides were just so long," Salisbury said. That necessity begat more mazes (there will be 13 of them at this year's Haunt) and the famous Calico Square hangings.

"The hangings started out in the 1970s as a real, live witch hanging," Jeff Tucker, supervisor of the park's shows, said in a promotional video for this year's Haunt.

The hangings involved stringing up a witch on a gallows. Once hung, the witch would disappear in a cloud of smoke, replaced with a flock of doves that flew away.

"It was actually a pretty tame show as far as those go," Tucker said. "But the local witches complained. The people who really practice witchcraft – Wicca – complained, and rightly so. So the show morphed into a Gypsy hanging. And then the Gypsies complained."

Since then, the hangings have usually involved someone the event's directors felt was deserving of public scorn; Britney Spears – a least an actress portraying Spears – has been a past victim.

Over the years, Haunt shows were created around some famous names, including Wolfman Jack, Seymour and Elvira.

But the real attractions, most Haunt visitors would probably say, are the monsters. Knott's Berry Farm floods Ghost Town and environs with all manner of demons, beasts, and other fiends too profane to find rest in the Elysian Fields.

Each year, Knott's hires hundreds of people who transform into monsters as the twilight ebbs. In addition to the long hours scaring park patrons, some of them undergo hours of makeup and costume work before even venturing into public. For many, serving as part of the monster horde is to be part of an unholy fraternity.

Torrance resident Bryan Beaulieu, 19 at the time he was interviewed at a Haunt monster audition in 2009, received his general equivalency diploma years before so he could leave high school and work at Haunt. His left shoulder sported a tattoo of a werewolf, his first Haunt mask. He was given another spot on the monster squad by pretending to douse himself in gasoline, then flicking a lighter.

Just as loyal are Haunt patrons; in any crowd of Haunt attendees running from monsters, chances are many of them have attended Haunt before, sometimes for years or decades in a row.

And the crowds – several hundred thousand people attend during the month-long run of Haunt each year – began on that very first night, the last weekend of October, 1973.

"Do you know how many parks have Halloween events now? That all started at Knott's Berry Farm in a little meeting," Salisbury said. "I remember that Friday night (premiere), that very first one. I went up to the front gates, and there was a sea of people. We thought, 'Wow, we've got something here.' And they still do."

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